Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Whatever the secret was – a good night's sleep, a great pre-game meal or just a mental reset – the Griffins looked like a different team out there on Saturday.
They played with confidence, rhythm and had better passing in a performance they can build upon, even if it ended up being their eighth-straight defeat of the Canada West women's volleyball season – a 3-1 loss to the Winnipeg Wesmen.
MacEwan took a set off the Wesmen in a 25-19, 25-22, 19-25, 25-17 result at the David Atkinson Gym.
It was a huge improvement over Friday's 3-0 defeat where the Griffins reached just 10 and 14 points in two of the sets.
"I don't know what the difference was," said Griffins setter Payton Shimoda. "Same personnel and similar stuff we saw from that side. We passed a lot better, which gave us a solid foundation to build off of even when mistakes were made, we had that. I thought Maddy (Hoppus) did a really good job of taking the lead on serve-receive in the back row."
Shimoda was in and out of Saturday's match twice after being hit the head two times and taking a hard shot to the shoulder off blocks, hits and deflections.
"I think it was a rough go," she said. "I got beat up on a little, but they were all freak accidents, so what can you do? I thought while I was off, coming back onto the court everyone was really solid and composed. It was really cool to see everyone step up."
Shimoda finished with 23 assists, while backup setter Renee Jodoin had 12.
"She's so awesome," said Shimoda of Jodoin. "She did such a good job. She's such a good blocker. I thought she ran a really good offence. The transition between us was really smooth. I thought she led, was confident and, overall, I thought she did an amazing job."
With the result, the Griffins are now 0-8 on the season, while Winnipeg improves to 4-4.
Selva Planincic led the Wesmen with 15 kills and three aces, while Ella Werbiski had 11 kills on a .611 hitting percentage, and both Brooke Duncalfe and Grace Vallis had 10 kills. It was a truly balanced attack for Winnipeg, set up by Breanna Bazin, who managed 42 assists in just four sets.
SET 2 | Arden Butler leading the @MacEwanGriffins for a second-straight night. Here is one of her match-high 10 kills (on a .474%) through two sets.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/a8WMUhdJ9F
— GriffinsWVB (@GriffinsWVB) November 16, 2024
Arden Butler led the Griffins with 14 kills on a .379 hitting percentage, adding seven digs and accounting for 14.5 points. Alyshia Bryks had 12 kills and eight digs.
"It was a better response by us," said Griffins head coach Chris Wandler. "I was happy with the way Renee came in. I thought Renee did a really good job of balancing everything and keeping everything under control. Arden came in, I thought she did a good job yesterday but an even better job today just owning her game. You have to own your game in what you do and don't do. Alyshia had a better response today, too.
"Just a better team collective effort and that stuff needs to continue. You just can't decide one day you're going to take a day off. It's a nice response."
The Griffins were able to play with the Wesmen for much of the match, but the difference was late in sets. The visitors pulled away when it came to getting the clutch points.
In the opening set, no one had more than a one-point lead until the Wesmen went up 17-15. They began to pull away on an Emily Lavallee ace and closed it out on Werbiski's kill at 25-19 after the Griffins gave them two-straight free balls.
SET 1 | Andi Krawec with a great back row attack as the teams trade points early in the match.#GriffNation @MacEwanGriffins @Wesmenathletics pic.twitter.com/uLb21NWVGM
— GriffinsWVB (@GriffinsWVB) November 16, 2024
"We made some errors at times," said Wandler. "Balls weren't put in the right spot and we gave too many free balls away. Sometimes it's not taking enough risk. If you don't take enough risk and just put easy balls, teams are just going to come hammer the ball down your throat."
The Griffins held several leads early in the second set, but it was just little things that the Wesmen did better in the late going and they closed it out on Planincic's kill off the block and out at 25-22.
MacEwan broke open a close third set with a 5-0 run to get to a 16-10 lead after Evangeline Zeyha's block in the middle. The teams traded attacking and serving errors down the stretch, but the Griffins got a huge kill from Anika Buys, adjusting in the air to tip a quick set, to get to 22-18 and closed it out on another Zeyha block.
SET 3 | Evangeline Zeyha comes up with a big block in the middle on set point as the @MacEwanGriffins win 25-19 to stay alive. @Wesmenathletics lead the @CanadaWest match 2-1.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/WNyeNjDGHL
— GriffinsWVB (@GriffinsWVB) November 16, 2024
Winnipeg seemed to find another gear in the fourth set, though, pulling away with an early 5-1 lead and never looking back. Too many errors prevented the Griffins from rallying late and the Wesmen ended it on their second match point attempt on Lavallee's kill.
It will go down as a building block performance overall for the Griffins as they head into a bye week before visiting UBC on Nov. 29-30.
"Hopefully it's another stackable moment and we can move forward to a good bye week of training and with our last weekend (of the semester) at UBC, we can start to make some progress," said Wandler.
